The effects of poverty in childhood can last a lifetime. Research shows that children living in poverty have lower levels of health and wellbeing, attain lower levels of education, have lower levels of occupational attainment and are more likely to be poor in adulthood. In this report, we focus...

A new ESRI study, commissioned by Pobal, examines socioeconomic conditions across communities in Ireland. Using Census data, the study examines how potential barriers to social inclusion have changed over time and if disadvantaged communities are particularly adversely affected. Findings from...

Improving the energy efficiency of the residential housing sector represents a key challenge in meeting Ireland's carbon reduction targets. While challenges exist across the sector in terms of incentivising upgrades, these difficulties are more pronounced in the rental sector, which suffers from...

New research, published by the ESRI and produced in partnership with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE), uses Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data to look at the profile of fathers not living full-time with their children (termed non-resident fathers in the report). The GUI...

In this paper we assess the implications of monetary policy shocks on the house price to rent ratio in the case of the Irish property market. Crucially, in light of the particular circumstances of the market, we allow for the interaction between monetary policy and changing credit conditions in...

The School Completion Programme was established in 2002 to provide support for children and young people at risk of early school leaving and is part of a suite of supports offered through the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS)1 programme. The programme is run by Tusla Education...

The decline in international trade following the financial crisis suggests a shift in globalisation and a transformation of the international economic order. Protectionist trade policies have gained prominence as certain major economies increasingly implement tariffs to safeguard domestic...

The rise in inflation in recent years triggered a cost-of-living crisis, in which households' ability to afford basic necessities declined. The cost-of-living crisis disproportionately affected lower income households, with the proportion in material deprivation (i.e. unable to afford basic...

School-aged children and adolescents under 18 in Ireland spend more time online than ever before. 'Digital technology' is a broad term that refers to electronic devices like computers, smartphones, smart TVs and game consoles. These devices can connect to the internet and access various types of...

In recent years, research opportunities in labour economics have expanded, due to the availability of large datasets capturing online job vacancies. While not a replacement for well-established labour market surveys, online job vacancy data have several advantages. They contain information that...

Historic underinvestment, coupled with a growing and ageing population, has led to capacity constraints in public acute hospitals in Ireland. This is evidenced by ageing infrastructure, large waiting lists and long waiting times for elective treatment, as well as pressure on unscheduled care...

This report examines child deprivation in Ireland. It focuses on children who experience deprivation but are not classified as at-risk-of-poverty (AROP). As a result, they fall outside the official consistent poverty measure, which is a combined measure of AROP and deprivation. The report uses...

Planning for future healthcare needs is essential for ensuring the safe and effective delivery of healthcare services in the coming years. A number of studies have shown that demand for health and social care services will increase in Ireland in the coming years due to a growing and ageing...

Globally, the popularity of homesharing platforms such as Airbnb has grown rapidly in the past decade. These platforms allow households to raise additional income and utilise space in their homes that may otherwise remain unused. However, concerns over the impacts of short-term lets (STL) on...

The experience of sexual intercourse for the first time is a significant life event, and influenced by a range of individual, cultural and societal factors. Age of first sexual initiation is a major area of policy and research focus, as the circumstances of first sex (e.g. whether contraception...

In many countries, subsidies towards higher education and financial aid to students from poorer backgrounds have reduced socio-economic status (SES) gaps in undergraduate study. The increasing importance of graduate studies that are typically more expensive may, however, provide a new avenue for...

This report provides a high-level comparison of the economies of Ireland and Northern Ireland (NI) for recent years. A range of economic, socio-economic and demographic measures are used to explore similarities and differences in economic growth, living standards, general well-being and economic...

Peter Neary, a master of the understanding of international trade, and an international leader in the organization of the economics profession, is generally regarded as the greatest Irish economist of modern times. Known for the elegant rigour and precision with which he presented the arguments...

Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods in the development of healthy sexual health and relationships, as patterns of behaviour that develop during these life stages shape outcomes throughout the life course. Recent rises in notifications of certain sexually transmitted infections...

Life expectancy rates have increased substantially in Ireland in recent years, driven mainly by reductions in mortality rates at older ages. Accordingly, Ireland has seen large increases in its older population, and along with this increasing demand for health and social care services,...

Child poverty is of growing concern in Ireland and internationally due to the growing body of evidence on the detrimental effects of childhood socio-economic disadvantage on children, both in the short term and in the long term through loss of education, earnings and health. In Ireland, child...

This research estimates by how much the NCS reduces childcare costs for families who use formal childcare in Ireland. The cost 'coverage' of the subsidy, measured by the ratio of the subsidy to the total cost of care, is estimated using the microsimulation model, SWITCH, linked to 2022 data from...

This report provides a high-level comparison of the economies of Ireland and Northern Ireland (NI) for recent years. A range of economic, socio-economic and demographic measures are used to explore similarities and differences in economic growth, living standards, general well-being and economic...

This study investigates how farmers, rural residents, and urban residents compare when it comes to perceptions and understanding of climate change, as well as willingness to make changes in their lives to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study takes place in a context where there is an...

We construct estimates of quarterly GDP for Ireland from 1950, linking to official data from 1995 onward, using a novel factor-augmented Chow-Lin interpolation. Compared to the only alternative series (OECD, 2025), our procedure exploits the variation in a large number of official quarterly...

The COVID-19 health pandemic had a profound impact on economies and their labour markets worldwide. This included Ireland, with its labour market experiencing substantial increases in unemployment due to the implementation of a number of public health measures. The labour market disruptions...

Cohesion Policy in Ireland has been instrumental in addressing regional disparities, fostering innovation, and promoting a greener, low-carbon economy. With two regional programmes in place, the focus has been on enhancing research excellence, skills development, energy efficiency measures, and...

Cohesion Policy in Ireland has been instrumental in addressing regional disparities, fostering innovation, and promoting a greener, low-carbon economy. With two regional programmes in place, the focus has been on enhancing research excellence, skills development, energy efficiency measures, and...

This unique insight into the corporate investment in Ireland examines companies' finance needs and the constraints they face. The 2024 edition also provides insight into the pressing issues facing firms, such as climate change, high energy costs and the green transition. The survey, which has...

The VAT Gap represents the difference between expected VAT revenues and those actually collected, reflecting compliance challenges, policy inefficiencies, and enforcement gaps. As part of the European Commission's ongoing efforts to improve VAT compliance and revenue collection, these 27 country...

This report is part of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work's (EU-OSHA) research initiative discussing the role of Labour Inspectorates and national prevention services providers in selected EU Member States7. In total, five countries were covered: Germany, Ireland, Norway, Poland...

Although we recognise 'Roma' as an umbrella term, throughout this report, we refer to 'Travellers' and 'Roma' to clearly identify the distinct situations, identities, and experiences of the Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. The 2022 Census records that there are 16,059 Roma living in...

This report documents the work done in the most recent annual update for Ireland. This work was carried out by the EUROMOD core development team, based at the JRC in Seville, in collaboration with the national team.

Overall, government effectiveness remained above average among the European Union Member States (EU‑27) compared with 2019 (before the impact of COVID-19). Ireland's score has been slowly but steadily increasing since 2019 (from 1.26 in 2019 to 1.55 in 2022). As the World Bank government...

There were six ELD occurrences in Ireland from the time that the ELD was transposed into Irish law on 1 April 2009 until 30 September 2021. Three of these occurrences involved an imminent threat of environmental damage, of which two were for biodiversity damage and one was for water damage....

This paper evaluates the redistributive and labour supply effects of transitioning from a joint to a fully individualised income tax system in Ireland. The current Irish tax system, which remains partially joint since the early 2000's, provides a financial advantage to married couples by...

Cedefop's work on qualifications frameworks dates back to 2003. The Centre has contributed to the conceptual development of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and has supported its further implementation, working alongside national authorities and stakeholders to introduce and develop...

The aim is to identify gaps in the monitoring network for Ireland according to the revised Ambient Air Quality Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/2881). The analysis is conducted considering the data officially reported by Ireland for the last five years (2019-2023) to EEA's Repornet2. Data has been...

New research, published by the ESRI and produced in partnership with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (DCDE), uses Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) data to look at the profile of fathers not living full-time with their children (termed non-resident fathers in the report). The GUI...

Historic underinvestment, coupled with a growing and ageing population, has led to capacity constraints in public acute hospitals in Ireland. This is evidenced by ageing infrastructure, large waiting lists and long waiting times for elective treatment, as well as pressure on unscheduled care...

A new ESRI study, commissioned by Pobal, examines socioeconomic conditions across communities in Ireland. Using Census data, the study examines how potential barriers to social inclusion have changed over time and if disadvantaged communities are particularly adversely affected. Findings from...

Improving the energy efficiency of the residential housing sector represents a key challenge in meeting Ireland's carbon reduction targets. While challenges exist across the sector in terms of incentivising upgrades, these difficulties are more pronounced in the rental sector, which suffers from...

Child poverty is of growing concern in Ireland and internationally due to the growing body of evidence on the detrimental effects of childhood socio-economic disadvantage on children, both in the short term and in the long term through loss of education, earnings and health. In Ireland, child...

School-aged children and adolescents under 18 in Ireland spend more time online than ever before. 'Digital technology' is a broad term that refers to electronic devices like computers, smartphones, smart TVs and game consoles. These devices can connect to the internet and access various types of...

Planning for future healthcare needs is essential for ensuring the safe and effective delivery of healthcare services in the coming years. A number of studies have shown that demand for health and social care services will increase in Ireland in the coming years due to a growing and ageing...